The Government was last night urged to ban the broadcasting of TV adverts for alcohol products before 9 p.m. in the wake of yet another study showing consumption of alcohol among young people in Ireland is the highest in the EU.
The Eurostat study found young Irish people in particular drink far in excess of their EU counterparts. Half of Irish women in the 15-24 age group drink regularly, for example, which is 10 times that of Italian women in the same age group.
Dr Joe Barry, president of the Irish Medical Organisation and a member of the Government's Strategic Taskforce on Alcohol, said there were a number of measures which could be taken by the Government to curb these drinking rates which were not being taken. These included a ban on TV adverts of alcohol products before 9 p.m., and placing warnings on alcohol products that people should not drink when driving or operating machinery, and that drinking during pregnancy could harm the unborn child.
The banning of alcohol adverts on TV before 9 p.m. was, he said, "something the Department of Health is not prepared to do at the moment for some reason".
"The drinks industry in this country is extremely powerful and they seem to have persuaded the Department against it. The Minister (for Health) must now give his views on this," he added.
A spokeswoman for the Minister, Mr Martin, said legislation had been drafted to control "the advertising, sponsorship, marketing and sales promotion of alcohol products". However, it is understood it will not ban TV advertising of alcohol products before 9 p.m. Discussions are instead focusing on banning such adverts during individual TV programmes watched by significant numbers of young people.